V. Kanakasabhai

Visvanatha Kanakasabhai Pillai (1855–1906) was an Indian lawyer, historian and Dravidologist of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. He was the first person to attempt a chronology of ancient Tamil Nadu. He was also one of the first people to deduce the references to a long-submerged legendary continent, Kumari Kandam, in texts such as Silappadhikkaram.

Ancestry

Kanakasabhai was born in Komaleeswaranpet, a locality in present-day Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India on 25 May 1855. His ancestors hailed from Mallakam, a town near Jaffna, Northern Province, British Ceylon. Kanakasabhai's father V.Visvanatha Pillai, author of Tamil-English dictionary, from Mallakam.

Early life and education

Kanakasabhai graduated in arts from Presidency College, Madras and joined the Indian Postal Service. He postulated a new theory that the Dravidian upper classes originally hailed from Mongolia.

Kanakasabhai was the first historian to attempt a systematic chronology of Tamil history. Kanakasabhai believed that the Sangam age might have flourished even in the 2nd century AD. He based these claims on the Gajabahu synchronism proposed by Seshagiri Sastriyar.

Criticism

Kanakasabhai's claims of Mongolian origin for Tamils and the relation of the word "Tamil" with Tamralipti have invited sharp criticism from contemporary historians. At the Madras Presidency College lectures in 1896, a European said that Kanakasabhai's claims demonstrated the "comparative worthlessness of Hindu history".

Works